28.1.06

28 January 814

Charlemagne dies.

Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great, died on this date at the age of 71. Charlemagne was the founder of the Carolingian Empire and a line of emperors that ruled a good deal of France and Germany until 987. Charlemagne is the most formidable figure in early medieval Europe, and he has every right to be. He became king in 768 of a territory encompassing northern France and parts of Germany, and over the next 30 years he extended his rule into southern France and parts of northern Spain, central and southern Germany, Italy, and into Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Both Germany and France consider him the founder of their countries. In several Slavic languages and Turkish, the word for "king" derives from his German name, Karl (král in Czech and król in Polish, for instance). He was crowned Emperor in Rome on Christmas Day 800. He promoted learning and strong government throughout his domain, in an age when personal rule meant everything. Interesting guy, Charlemagne. We're still learning about him. When I was a lad I saw his palace at Aachen. I don't remember it. Can I go back to Europe now?

I missed a few days, and that's a shame, because they were good ones. On 26 January 1885, Charles "Chinese" Gordon, who by all accounts was an unpleasant human being and an incompetent military leader, was killed in Khartoum by the forces of the Mahdi, two days before a British relief column reached him. Because of his spectacular failure in the Sudan, he is remembered as a hero. Meanwhile, on 27 January 98, Marcus Ulpius Traianus, whom we know as Trajan, became Roman Emperor on the death of Nerva, thereby inaugurating Rome's Golden Century - from his accession to the death of Marcus Aurelius in AD 180. Trajan has a good rep partly because he didn't actively persecute Christians, so later Christian writers were nice to him - Dante actually put him in Paradise.